


made with love

by kawaikunai



Category: DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 01:34:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15741423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kawaikunai/pseuds/kawaikunai
Summary: There's nothing more comforting than the taste of home cooking.





	made with love

“Food is ready!” Aoba called. The dashi had come to a proper simmer, though Aoba continued to stir the pot, mindlessly watching the broth swirl around the spoon. It had been simple to prepare, but he hoped it would actually taste alright. 

It wasn’t like he hadn’t made chazuke before, but granny’s recipe was a completely different version of the dish. Sure, he’d improved a lot when it came to cooking in general, but he was prone to stumbling here and there (he still refused to speak of the okonimiyaki incident). 

It was then that Koujaku popped into the kitchen, breaking Aoba out of his thoughts. At least he was a nice guinea pig, he wouldn’t have any rude comments even if it didn’t pan out. 

“Need any help?” He asked.

“Could you serve up some rice and set the table?”

“Of course!”

As Koujaku started on moving the rice cooker, Aoba grabbed the mixing bowl set on the counter. He shook the contents into a large serving bowl, in hopes of making the mixture more presentable.

Sea bream, egg yolk, wasabi and konbu. These ingredients somehow gave off a more mature vibe than the usual combo of tuna and umeboshi. Back at home, Granny would top it all off with barley tea. It was a simple, tasty way to finish off leftover rice.

The sea bream mix was something he’d found written on a small slip of paper, tucked away in a dusty old box. Granny had sent him to the storage closet for the written forms of her recipes, sick of Aoba’s constant questions (though in his defence, “a scoop” and “eyeball it” were /not/, and have never been valid measurements. He’s no master chef like she is, it wasn’t his fault he needed specifics.). While the majority of papers inside had her messy scrawl, what caught his eye was the word ‘ochazuke’ in neat, elegant writing. He took a photo of it, along with a few other dishes that looked appetizing. There were quite a few interesting recipes in the mix, but since he had leftover ingredients waiting to be used, a dish like this made the most sense.

“Excuse me,” Koujaku gently nudged Aoba aside so that he could grab chopsticks out of the cutlery drawer.

“Take this over too,” Aoba handed Koujaku the bowl. He balanced it on one hand, chopsticks in the other. With a smile, he leaned in and kissed Aoba’s forehead, laughing when Aoba lightly smacked his shoulder in response, “quit it, wait until after dinner! Stinky old man!” 

He ignored Koujaku’s insistence that he was in fact, still a nice smelling young man, to finish preparing the broth. With a huff, Aoba took a ladle and carefully scooped some of the steaming liquid into a small, ceramic teapot. It was much easier to pour on like this, plus Koujaku had a ridiculous amount of tea ware for some reason. With the final piece in hand, he walked over to the table himself, where Koujaku was already topping the bowls with the fish mixture.

“Today’s chazuke looks a little different.”

“I got the recipe out of Granny’s collection, but I’m not sure how it’ll taste.”

“Well, I’m sure it’ll be just as delicious as usual.”

“Uh-huh,” Aoba said, choosing to ignore Koujaku’s flattery in favour of pouring the broth over their bowls.

They took their seats now that their food was ready. Koujaku stared at his bowl, face suddenly devoid of his usual smile. Aoba knit his brows at the sight, but before he could ask what was wrong, Koujaku broke the silence.

“What’s in here?”

“Uhh, sea bream, some egg, kelp… why, is there something you don’t like? Don’t tell me celery isn’t the only thing you’re picky about.”

“That’s not it!” Koujaku said, suddenly defensive. He recovered a second later and cleared his throat, “it’s nothing. I was just wondering.”

Aoba raised a brow but didn’t press him further. The two quickly murmured their thanks for the meal before taking their first bites.

Aoba bit into some fish and a small bunch of rice. He chewed carefully, eyes slowly widening.

It was… completely delicious. The egg, sea bream, and dashi complimented each other perfectly. It was savoury but not too reach, and thankfully not a complete and utter disaster.

Aoba looked up at Koujaku, grinning in anticipation because, after all, no one was quicker to praise good food than Koujaku. However, Koujaku’s gaze didn’t meet his own, he was still silently chewing, head turned downwards.

Aoba’s expression dropped. Maybe it was worse than he thought?

He watched Koujaku wordlessly, waiting for some sort of reaction, only to see Koujaku put his chopsticks down and cover his eyes.

It wasn’t until he saw a tear streaming down his cheek that he understood what was happening.

“Koujaku? Koujaku, are you okay?!” Aoba jumped out of his seat and rushed over to his side, sending his chopsticks clattering to the floor. Damn it, had he messed up the food so badly he’d brought his boyfriend to /tears/?

“’s okay Aoba,” Koujaku choked out, though by the way his voice wavered Aoba didn’t believe it for one second.

“Was it that bad? I’ll take it away and we can just have instant noodles or something!“

“…er’s cooking.”

“Huh?” Aoba leaned in closer, Koujaku’s voice unusually soft and difficult to hear.

“…this tastes just like my mother’s cooking,” he said, still covering his eyes with his hand, although the tears continued to flow freely.

Aoba felt his heart stop.

“Oh no- I’m, I’m sorry Koujaku, I knew it wasn’t Granny’s writing but I didn’t think- I didn’t know- I’m sorry,” as his mind raced, his thoughts came out stumbling and incoherent. He just figured it belonged one of the other old ladies Granny hung out with at the senior centre, but this, /this/ was something he could never have anticipated. Aoba nearly felt like crying himself, seeing Koujaku this way, thinking he had hurt him.

“It’s okay,” Koujaku said again, voice unsteady still. He took a deep breath and rubbed at his eyes, wiping the wetness away, “…Aoba, thank you.”

It took a good few seconds for Aoba to understand what he just heard. Koujaku looked his way and gave him a small tear stained smile.

“Thank you? Thank you?! I just made you cry!” Aoba exclaimed, his own voice cracking. 

Koujaku looked taken aback, though his shock quickly devolved into a chuckle. 

“Why do you look like you’re about to cry? You’re still a crybaby after all this time huh.”

“Shut up!” Aoba said, completely out of habit. He gasped and immediately began to apologize, which only spurred Koujaku to laugh more.

“I’m sorry Aoba, I made you misunderstand. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s a complicated feeling… but I’m happy.”

“Happy,” Aoba repeated. The situation no longer made any sense to him.

“I… never thought I’d be able to taste my mother’s cooking again. I was caught of guard, even though it looked familiar, when I tasted it I guess… something came over me,” he gave Aoba a soft smile. With a sigh, Aoba leaned down and pulled him into a tight hug. The position was slightly awkward, given that Koujaku was still sitting while Aoba had his arms around his shoulder. Nonetheless, the embrace was a welcome relief to the unnecessarily stressful previous few minutes.

“I’m sorry for making you think about painful things,” Aoba said.

Koujaku squeezed back tightly, “you don’t need to apologize for anything. It was a surprise but I’m glad I can remember her like this.”

“…You know, Granny has a lot of recipes. I barely looked through any of them so there could be more,” Aoba took Koujaku’s silence as encouragement and continued, “next time we visit we can look through them, if you want.”

“If we found them, would you make them for me?”

“I’d do my best, but you have to promise not to freak me out like this again!”

Koujaku laughed. Aoba leaned down and kissed the top of his head, feeling completely exhausted.

“As much as I’d like to stay like this,” Koujaku punctuated his words by nuzzling his face into Aoba’s stomach, “the dinner you made is delicious, and I want to eat it while it’s hot.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it-“

“But I’m looking forward to having you for dessert.”

“…you really are a stinky old man.”

**Author's Note:**

> I spent a bunch of time just scrolling though chazuke recipes on cookpad so these are legit ingredient combos here. It's a dish that's generally rice, some mix of meats and veggies, and topped with hot water, tea, or dashi. I thought it would be kind of sweet if Kouj got the chance to try his mom's food again, even if it was on accident. They were close friends with the Seragaki family so I thought hey, maybe she shared some of her own cooking with them! This was completely self edited and done in one day so apologies for any mistakes. Thanks for reading!


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